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Broken Soul
Broken Soul is a short story detailing the first reincarnation of Rak'Ven. ---- The sergeant watched as two elite commandos, clad in heavy, black armor, walked past him, dragging another Skazark, stripped of his armor, his pale skin covered in wounds and scars. The unlucky soldier lifted his head, looked at the sergeant with his cold, blue, eyes, and moved his lips, but his voice couldn't be heard. One of the commmandos smacked the prisoner in the head with his armored hand, knocking him unconscious. Seemingly content with this, the two continued dragging the armorless soldier towards the tall, black building, made of some strange looking, metal-like material. As the three approached the building, a crack appeared in the ideally smooth wall. The crack grew wider and wider, white light pouring out of it, until it formed a doorway. The two commandos entered the doorway, dragging the prisoner behind them. As silently as it opened, the crack closed, as if it swallowed the three, and the wall was as smooth as glass once again. 'Boy, that sure is one unlucky fellow right there' the sergeant thought, as he continued cleaning his rifle. *** He was doomed. That's what Rak'Ven thought. After his attempt to desert during the battle on Galeran IV, his life was ruined. A team of commandos hunted him down and captured him. After that, he was hauled onto a prison ship and brought to the capital, where he was quickly sentenced to death. To his amazement, however, a high-ranking officer approached him, just before he was about to be transported to the execution site. The officer, who introduced himself as 'Valen A'trel of the Advanced Research Corps' offered him...no, pretty much forced him into joining some project that would 'win us the war.'. Ven was sure that it was going to be something worse than an execution, otherwise, the officer wouldn't have bothered with him. Desertion was a crime more serious than murder in the Empire. After he accepted the 'offer', he was brought to a chamber where machines stripped off his armor and then he was thrown into another prisoner transport ship. After a short journey, or at least it seemed short,as the ship was equipped with a jump drive, he was brought here. Wherever this 'here' was. And now something was going to happen. Ven slowly opened his eyes looked around. He was brought into a small room, full of equipment, thousands of cables and coils covering the floor, like metal snakes. In one of the room's corners, there were several giant computers and other devices. Some Skazark wearing white armor were pressing buttons and typing commands on the keyboards, seemingly unaware of his presence. One of the two brutes that had brought him to the facility cleared his throat, the sound coming out distorted from his armor's speakers. The scientists turned around, stared at Ven and the two soldiers for a few seconds, as if they needed some time to process what they were seeing, then one of them raised his hand and pointed towards an exit, directing the two commandos towards it. As they exited the room, the white armor wearing figures returned to their chairs, and continued typing in command after command. For a while, all that could be heard was the annoying humming of the machinery. After a few more minutes of silence, some distant, weird sound could be heard. 'Clank' 'Clank' 'Clank' Suddenly, a hole opened in the floor, blinding light streaming out of it. A weird, silver container, about as tall as Ven, slowly rose from the hole on the floor, hovered above it, showered in light, until the hole closed, and then dropped down to the floor, locking itself in place with a metallic sound. With wheezing, the container opened, dim blue light shining from within it. One of the scientists stood up from his chair, and took a few steps forward towards Ven. 'Come on. Get in. We can't start if you just keep sitting on the floor now, can we?' he said with a calm voice, that somehow made it clear that his next words were going to be something like "If you don't do it yourself, we'll be forced to put you inside". 'Start what?' Ven said, while getting up. It might not be a good idea to annoy the researchers, he thought, but still, he sure as hell wasn't just going to enter that thing. 'Oh, I see. They didn't tell you anything, did they?' said the white armored Skazark in front of him, tilting his head to the right 'Then again, they had no reason to. You're a deserter, senteced to death, no? You don't ask questions when you're given the chance to live' , the scientist continued 'But I will tell you anyway. It's not like you'll be in a position to cause trouble if I let you know.' Ven didn't like the sound of this. But what options did he have? Escape? Sure, he could probably knock the scientists out, but then what? There were guards, the commandos who brought him here, and last, but not least, and entire army stationed just outside of this facility. He made a bitter smile while thinking about it. 'We'll be summoning a war spirit.' the researcher continued 'Of course, for that, we need something to place it in, give it a physical body. Sadly, our attempts to force those spirits into mechanical bodies have...failed.' he said, with a note of sadness in his voice. 'So we're going to use your body.' he said cheerfuly, and let out a chuckle. 'Oh, sorry, how unprofessional of me, to be excited like that. But you see, if we succeed, this can win us the war. If we don't...well, you're just a deserter who was going to die anyway...' Just a deserter who was going to die anyway. The undeniable truth. His life was less valuable than that of even the lowest of scum right now. With these thoughts crossing his mind, Ven reluctantly took a step towards the silver container. If he was going to die, might as well be useful, right? He took another step. War spirit, eh? Those things from the children's tales, scary beings from thousands of years ago. It didn't sound very real. 'Ah, so you'll cooperate? That makes it so much easier for both of us!' the scientist exclaimed, clapping his hands together. 'Well then, I'll be heading back to my station. Remember, you're doing this for the good of the Empire. And even if you die, I guess that they will lift all charges from you, posthumously, maybe even award you a medal!' ---- A lamp began flashing. One of the scinetists checked the display and her eyes widened as she read the warning: //SYSTEM FAILURE//REACTOR OVERLOAD IN 10//RISK: 100% Then the screen faded to black. A holoprojector flashed and a black shadow appeared. In an unnatural voice, similar to that of most AIs it spoke: "I suggest you stop the process, professor. The subject may be injected with more exasloramin than needed. This may cause some interesting, but... dangerous effects." But it was too late. They were going to pay. For what they did to him, for ruining his life. Rak felt as power ran through him. He felt his body drained of nearly all of its energy suddenly become more energised than ever before, he felt as the armor fused itself to him and then he opened his eyes. The red visor flashed, a targeting reticule appeared and his health and shield indicators flashed at the top right corner. A calm female voice said that self-diagnostics were complete and the suit is battle ready. And then, with a single movement of his arm he ripped the 5 centemetres thick titanium walls of the tube like it was paper. As the smoke cleared, the professor rose to her feet and looked at the tube. Something moved in the smoke with unnatural speed. The last thing she saw was the bright red visor of His helmet, and she new they succeeded. Rak dropped the scinetist's dead body and felt something strange. Like there was somebody else in the suit. No, not in the suit. In his head. He ignored the strange feeling and walked towards the blast door. His hearing was far stronger than some hours ago. He heard the clicking sound of several MX-5 rifles being loaded and he guessed the security forces were coming to stop him. They were going to fail. In a flash, a big black cannon shapeshifted from his left arm's armor and began emitting a buzzing sound. A new icon flashed on his HUD. It showed the cannon's charge. It was ready to fire. He aimed at the door and fired. A blackish beam of pure antimatter was fired from the cannon and blew the two feet thick doors apart. When he walked out of the room, he saw the bodies of several guards, their armor molten. He walked away and down a long, dark corridor, lighteb by glowing lines on the walls. The door he entered the facility was open, light pouring through it, maiking it look like a portal. "Detecting thousands of targets right outside the building. I suggest you find another way out." said the armor's AI. Rak ignored her and continued walking towards the door. The light grew brighter and brighter, and before his visor polarised completely, he was out of the building. And then he saw them. He felt them. Every rifle and cannon pointed at him. He could sense their fear. And then, time slowed down. He felt as the "other one" he felt earlier took controll. He felt as he channeled strange and unimaginable power through his arms and shot a blast of dark Chaos energy from his arm at the soldiers. More than a hundred troopers were immideatly vaporized by the blast's raw power. Tanks, turrets, equipment and soldiers were flying in every direction. "Two Shade class hevy fighters are approaching our position. I suggest you take cover." said the AI. "No. I want to push this armor to it's limits." Rak heard himself saying. But it wasn't him. He was sure it wasn't him. He tried to take control over his body, but failed. It was too late anyways. The two fighters were just 5 kilomitres from him and fired their missiles. "Is there any way to evade those missiles?" the other one asked the AI. "Yes. maximize the power of your shields and activate your boosters on my mark." The missiles were getting closer. 100 metres. 50 metres. "Mark." said the AI calmly. The boosters mounted on Rak's back activated and he flew up. Three missiles hit the facility, but one continued chasing him. And just as Rak thought he and the other one were dead, he felt his arm moving and in the next moment, he was holding the missile. Then, he threw it and it hit one of the watchtowers which exploded in a clod of black dust and razor-sharp shrapnels. Rak was surprised to still be alive. And then he noticed the clowds were moving. But it wasn't the clouds. A five kilometres long Harpion class cruiser deactivated it's camoflague and moved towards the surface. Rak realised that even with this incredibly strong armor he couldn't survive a blast from the ship's Overcannon. So he decided to try something else. Ok. Whoever you are, you need to help me. This is the only way we can survive. This was insane. Talking with somebody who was occupying your body... Very well. I was starting to wonder when you'll ask for my help. But... What? Under one condition. You have to stop trying to regain control. '' ''Why? And who are you? I am... Do you know who you're named after? Do you know who the real, the first Rak'Ven Artarios was? He's just a legend. The Soulbreaker. An Atare weilding unimaginable power. It is said that when you die, he comes and takes your soul away. He controls some of the most dangerous elements. But as I said... he's just a legend. No... that is who I am. When I "die", I just transfer my soul into someone else. Your birth, your whole life was planned by me. And now you've finally fulfilled you task. '' Rak felt pain so strong that he nearly lost consciousness. And then... he felt nothing. The anicent, the REAL Rak'Ven smiled. He was back. Now... He jumped. His boosters activated and he landed on top of the cruiser. He concentrated all of his power and hit the ship. Nothing. Suddenly, the ship's armor began to crack. Explosions tore its metal sceleton and it began falling down. Rak jumped off it and began falling. ---- The supreme commander watched at the horizon, waiting for something to happen. And it happened. An atomic explsion set the sky on fire and turned the night into day. He tried to connect to the main base, but the communications were offline. He looked up and saw a tall, black figure, with it's visor glowing stand in front of him. "Hello there." the being said and grabbed the commander. "I was looking forward to meeting you." 'The end.' Characters *Rak'Ven *Several Skazark scinetists *Several Skazark soldiers *An unnamed Skazark supreme commander *Serena (AI) Trivia Parts of this story were inspired by the novel 'Halo: The Fall of Reach'''. Category:Stories Category:User:ToaAtraks